From challenging clients to internal staff, the most efficient method for leadership is to question everything – which can only be applied effectively by sparking joy within your employees.
In the business world, there seems to be a lingering essence of savoring tradition. If we take a look at our current cultural parameters within business today compared to fifty years ago, there is surprisingly not much that is different. Tradition and honoring tried-and-true methods can be an honorable thing – but as a business leader, one should almost have an aversion to this, according to Jackie Edmundson, CEO of Stealth Venture Labs.
Stealth Venture Labs is a leading digital growth marketing agency generating a staggering $1 billion in recurring revenue for clients and catalyzing another $1 billion in M&A for brands. Since joining Stealth as Chief Operating Officer in 2023, Edmundson achieved EBITDA growth by 400% and enhanced expense efficiency by 28%, demonstrating her prowess in being a changemaker which later earned her the title of Chief Executive Officer.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Edmundson to dive deep into the very strategies that she attributes to the growth and success she has pioneered at Stealth.
“At my absolute core, I challenge everything. I think that in the business world, it’s way too easy to become stagnant in – what should be – retired ways of thinking. Just because something has been done for fifty years doesn’t equate, to me, that it works. In fact, that’s usually an alarm in my brain that indicates something needs to change, desperately,” she explains.
“The largest misconception is that challenging concepts or ways of doing things takes too much time and could potentially be inefficient. My opinion is the polar opposite. The most efficient thing you can do for your business, your clients and your employees is to constantly ask ‘why.’ Having the mindset of, ‘what else could be done?’ or, ‘what could we do differently?’ is so critical to growth. There’s a saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a new result. That concept is what I am trying to squash.”
Edmundson explained to me the why behind the why – or, why she even bothers to be so hyper focused on change. It’s not just about innovating to drive business results, it’s much deeper than that. The both indirect and direct answer is that it sparks joy in the workplace. As a leader, by acting as a promoter of change, she creates an environment where employees can feel inspired, empowered, and creative. This mindset shift doesn’t just lead to breakthrough for clients and Stealth, but it elevates employees by fostering personal growth and a sense of shared success. Sparking the mindset shift of feeling the freedom to be innovative will inherently promote joy within an organization. Sparking joy is accomplished by prioritizing your people and understanding how to influence them to be better.
“The idea of prioritizing the ‘whole employee’ is the very concept that your employees are more than their work selves. As an employer and leader, there is immense value in paying attention to who an entire person is, outside of work. This enables us to individualize our employees – which is contrary to what most organizations do. Most try to meld their employees into who the company wants to be. I believe that is ineffective. At the end of the day, we are hiring individuals, so we should be treating them as such.”
One of the easiest and most effective ways to apply this concept is to understand what an employee’s appreciation language is.
For example, does that person value words of affirmation?
“If so, Edmundson points out, “I will make it a point to call out their accomplishments multiple times so that they feel personally fulfilled. I keep a running list of the people that I manage and make notes on what they prefer so that I can logistically make this a doable habit. This may seem tedious to some folks, but this is one of the ways in which I live and breathe my philosophy on intentional leadership.”
It shouldn’t be surprising that the happier people are in their profession, the better they perform – and that translates to both a more fulfilled employee as well as success for the business. The concept has been studied time and time again, which is why Edmundson is keen on encouraging joy within the culture at Stealth. Alongside Sir Brent Freeman, who is releasing a book called ‘Alchemy of Joy,’ she feels that the notion of sparking joy can only be done if employees feel understood and valued.
“I like to think of the unity of both business and employee success as a cycle,” she says. “For example, you first need to understand who your employees are – from there, you can implement small but mighty techniques to show them that you value them as a whole person. This will inherently spark joy, which then promotes innovation, which then primes our next generation of leaders to be uniquely positioned to think critically about everything and always ask the ‘why.’ If someone doesn’t feel comfortable, they won’t take any risk – whether that risk is challenging the status quo or something alike.”
To learn more about Stealth Venture Labs, visit their website. To find Jackie on social media, head to her LinkedIn page.
